At Last Autumn is here

Autumn is here. Autumn is magic. One day Everything  dissolves into fire and light and then disappears into the wind and rain the next.  Leaving only the most tenacious waiting for the next storm to finish the job. To me the light is often more intense then a clear sunny August day.  On a trip to Sisters-and, yes that is the name of a town not a trip to siblings- and over the Santiam Pass the colours were so intense often reflected against a deep green of the ever greens or from areas gone grey and then green from past forest fires. By the time we came home, i felt that my eyes had been burned out and needed  to rest in a dark room for a week. Every time I closed my eyes I was left with and after burn/ after image of the opposite colour. An interesting phenomena that happens when one stares at a given colour too long. You perceive it's opposite on the colour wheel.(see box below for a real scientific explanation that isn’t based on emotion)  I want to  memorialize the colours and use them in a  tapestry mixing them into incredible Chene's and mélanges-bobbin blending at it’s best...
There  is a particular red  that i have been trying to achieve for what seems like a million years. A cool red that darkens into a  a deep maroon or purple with a hint of a Deep turquoise green  and a hint of salmon.

Actually, who am I kidding there is also a salmon colour that dissolves to yellow-green. I haven't been able to capture.And, the list goes on to several other almost unrepeatable colours. I have more luck i think with the optical blending using bobbin blends then a dyer has trying to create the colours in dying the yarns for my wefts. My bobbin blends don’t turn to muddy colours like some dyes do when trying to copy these colours.  Should try to be less smug about it, but optical blending on a bobbin is pretty cool.

THE WHY OF IT. Negative afterimages are caused when the eye's photoreceptors, primarily those known as cone cells, adapt from the overstimulation and lose sensitivity.[1] Normally, the eye deals with this problem by rapidly moving small amounts (see: microsaccade), the motion later being "filtered out" so it is not noticeable. However, if the color image is large enough that the small movements are not enough to change the color under one area of the retina, those cones will eventually tire or adapt and stop responding. The rod cells can also be affected by this. When the eyes are then diverted to a blank space, the adapted photoreceptors send out a weak signal and those colors remain muted. However, the surrounding cones that were not being excited by that color are still "fresh", and send out a strong signal. The signal is exactly the same as if looking at the opposite color, which is how the brain interprets it.[citation needed] Swiped from Wikipedia

Working on clarity and specifics- It was time to journal again and create goals.
I am at a time in my life like no other. So,  Pat and I spent a couple of days at the coast along with Chene. Whose only concerned was and where is next treat was coming from and with not getting his feet and belly wet needlessly.  After all it is Autumn at the coast. Some times distance and solitude are needed to put things into proper or even a new  light and a time to figure out what is dross and should be allowed  to fall away. It' was also a time of getting away  from  the clutter that has occurred mentally over the last year and to define a new mental space when the old rules and things are no longer applicable because life has radically altered for me-once again.
        It was a good time  to revamp and create a new workable schedule-My weaving time was always disappearing as I worked down lists of relevant needful things to do that were eating in to my non scheduled weaving times. Give me list and I’ll work it through until it’s finished no matter what I really want to do.  So, Monday is silver, Tuesday is Fine Fiber Press book work, lunch for updating the week  and writing projects with Pat, Thursday afternoon is Gallery Calapooia and i have scheduled my weaving time, which always works for me. It allows me to say no and tell all to go away so I can weave and  do those things necessary for my weaving.  This new schedule should allow me 4-8 hours a day for weaving. Sort of reminds me of my grandmother’s embroidered tea towels with something for everyday. We all knew which day she was doing what.
I am now at a place to begin my new tapestries-Hallelujah, etc etc. But first- Now is the time when I spend a little- a lot  of my thought process analyzing what I think I could have done better or maybe not so much better-- as should have/could have done differently.  I finished the forever
  "7 times 7..." almost dog piece and photographed it in
time for entering the ATA exhibit. I was a very doubtful that i would get it finished and photographed in time. Perhaps doubtful it will even be juried into the show, but I needed a deadline to work towards. I like the design and it's well woven, but there are things in it's weft construction I probably won't do again.
      It was almost impossible to get a decent photo because of the high amount of silk and rayon in it. I took the photo's over 12 times. Let alone the same amount of times or more for the details.  My Nikon Color pix couldn’t deal with the silk and weave structure at all. My larger Nikon D-60 did slightly better, but had a tendency to darken all of the colours and moiré.They-rayon/silk- have this thing that they do better known as the  "moiré effect" that happens with a higher rate of frequency the more silk and rayon  that is mixed in with the cottons and embroidery flosses in the weft bundles. This piece seemed to be darker when photographed. I was hoping for lighter and a sheen from the rayon and silk. Didn’t happen!
One of the things I discovered in this piece is I am not particularly fond of the effect of silk and rayon in the tapestry weave process. At 20 epi the distance over a warp thread to the under the warp thread isn't large enough to maximize the visual effect that rayon and silk have over a longer distance.  Instead of shiny reflection one gets a hard look in some cases an almost straw look. I discovered this also happens when using the thin cut layers of silver used in obis and saganishiki for weaving into tapestry. And ,then ,of course almost worst  but in a different way are the moiré pattern that are created digitally when photographed. The bobbins were a nightmare. Always tangling. Handling the weft bundles was best done by not putting them on a bobbin and tying  an over hand knot every 8 inches.
(see section below that i wrote on bobbins)

Moiré effects-again liberated from Wikipedia Moiré patterns are often an undesired artifact of images produced by various digital imaging and computer graphics techniques, for example when scanning a halftone picture or ray tracing a checkered plane (the latter being a special case of aliasing, due to under sampling a fine regular pattern).[1] This can be overcome in texture mapping through the use of mip-mapping and anisotropic filtering. …The lines could represent fibers in moiré silk, or lines drawn on paper or on a computer screen. The nonlinear interaction of the optical patterns of lines creates a real and visible pattern of roughly parallel dark and light bands, the moiré pattern, superimposed on the lines.[2]  … One of the most important properties of shape moiré is its ability to magnify tiny shapes along either one or both axes, that is, stretching

AND NOW FINALLY THE NEW PIECES!!!
The design is now together and I started wweaving a piece that will be 12 x 12 inches. IT tells'/has a didactic feel and memorializes some thought that I had about my Dad’s life .Perhaps, a narrative about my fathers life.   I wanted to use some caution tape, but didn't have any pieces to work from. Came home one day and found the contractor had tied off the  sidewalk to keep people away from the scaffolding they were using while working on the soffits. So I have lots of pictures of draping caution tape.If you look carefully you can see the image of the truck and the caution tape on the cartoon behind he warp.
  I am also working on a series of small tapestries. The series is going to be called elements. Most will be about 3 inches x 3 inches and/or 2 x2 inches just be bits and pieces of things I like, but really don't need to put into a larger tapestry. But, Have Always wanted to weave just for the fun of it.  Another reason-not the real reason for doing them-just  part of the nagging thought process  of why not and what for this series is. Since i have been at Gallery Calapooia i am being asked if I do less expensive  pieces for the beginner collector. One of the conclusions i came to while going through my journals is that I have oodles of small drawings,  and photos of what i call bits and pieces that I would love the challenge myself with weaving, but never fit in to any particular design. So why not? Just for the shear pleasure and fun of doing or weaving bits and pieces that take smaller amounts of time. 

BOBBINS-
On the tapestry list the subject of bobbins circles around about every other year. There's always the discussion of why use them, why choose specific ones , how do you use them, why not needles, are they worth cost,appropriate size, etc, etc, etc.
SO I thought I would  list the reasons, show examples of bobbin shapes and sizes, needles, and a few do's and probably nots, etc.
reasons for using a bobbin-
When i compile a list such as this, I wish people would understand their are no tapestry police. There's no right or wrong only what works and what is comfortable to the individual. NO ones going to demand that you stop weaving tapestries just because you don’t do it in a specific way with specific tools and looms.
So here are the reasons I use bobbins--
PRO’s
1 And, let's get it out of the way. Bobbins  ARE not a butterfly or a needle. hallelujah! I am butterfly challenged and hate needles.
2. Bobbins organize weft bundles.
3.Bobbins help keep the weft  bundles cleaner. Less likely to pick up oil from the fingers, debris and dust then when weft is long and hanging from the fell line.
4. protects the weft bundle as it is drawn through the warp.  Less wear on the weft bundle. 
5.  In advanced tapestry weaving -it allows you to twist the weft bundle to produce different densities of colour  by twisting the weft bundles tighter or looser between the fell line and the bobbin.
6. Saves time.Less chance of tangling yarns and needing to untangle. Unless of course your working with multiple wefts of silk or rayon, which will tighten down on the wrapped threads on a bobbin and tangle in a whole new way when you try to get more weft from the wrapped bundle.
7. Ergonomically easier on the hands then a needle or a butterfly. Your fingers are not grasping and pulling small elements that can hurt the hands over time.
8. Bobbins will not accidentally pierce a warp.
9.Less wear on the weft as great amounts of it are used or pulled through the sheds. Wool and delicate threads will wear, become fuzzy and become less(wear) when pulled or unwoven over and over. 
10. Point of the bobbin can be used to place weft, pull down the bubble, hold a weft in place or move a warp.
11. The  side of the bobbin  can be used  to very effectively  scrape a weft bundle into place along a fell line. 
12 .Bobbins helps control the loopies and unevenness that can occur in weft bundles left hanging and then picked up to be woven.
13. Once you get used to them you can weave faster.
14. Bones-a type of bobbin without a point are less likely to fall through low warp looms and all of the above applies when using bones.
15. Bobbins are faster because you can change the direction with one hand and you only need to use one tool to move the weft along. Instead of several.
16. If you really get into large amounts of thread on a bobbin there are machines that can feel the bobbin-depending on the size of bobbin used. I have found though that my Swedish Bobbins will hold about 1.5 yards of 4-5 strands of wool. More then enough even on my largest pieces that
I have woven on.
17 the smaller the bobbin down to a certain size the faster you can push it through the shed and turn for the next half pass or demi duite.
Cons- 1. The right size for the hand or the loom can be difficult to find-Fine Fiber Press is a good source for different sizes.
2. Tips aren't meant be used to pry with and can be broken. New tips can be sharpened, use an awl, or get a brassy bob. Expensive, but you really only need one-or two-not all brassy bobs or a small palm awl will also suffice.
3. There usage is a learned skill. AND, people who use needles are often relating back to already learned skills and aren’t interesting in attempting to take the time to learn a new skill. Or, occasionally,  in some cases find it easier to manipulate because of lack of strength or other hand issues. I find that using  needles exasperates my hand issues.
4. Pointed bobbins don’t work really well on low warp looms-Point falls though easily-use bones or flutes that are meant for low warp looms.
5. Need to learn to use bobbins  in a specific way to make them practical-nob always goes through shed first. going point first grabs warps from the other shed.
5. Bobbins can run away. Learn the trick of hitching over the knob and it all stops and you can easily pull the thread off the bobbin for weaving.
HOW DO TELL A GOOD BOBBIN FROM A BAD BOBBIN
.

1. Check out where the spindle that the weft will be wrapped around. It needs to have a bit of substance. Yes, those bad bobbins are beautiful and graceful looking, but are not built to function over the long term. Plastic bobbins are cheap, but extremely fragile and not terribly practical over time and most of the tips suck because they are the wrong shape to go between the warps easily and who wants to stay in contact for long hours with plastic. Check where the spindle attaches to the barrel. It has to be attached in such away that it’s not fragile and can stand up to being pulled on and with stand pressure from the fingers.
2 It needs to be hard wood. Soft woods break easily and wear with weaving. Best bets are cherry, oak or maple-all hard woods.
3. If the tip of a bobbin breaks, don’t chuck it repoint with a jack knife or carving knife.
4. Stay away from heavily oiled and treated woods. Remember they will be in contact with your hands and the wefts for long periods of time. Finishes don't stay on long. They wear off with use.
5. Stay away from endangered rain forest woods. Don’t create a market for the woods. Usually hard woods from the rainforest are dense and heavier then oak, maple or cherry. If a tip breaks they are hard to repoint and save.
6. If someone tells you the bobbins are from recycled woods, ask the person if the woods that were recycled were ever painted or were from marine salvaged wood. Lead based paints and other not so  chemicals can be found on recycled woods.Know where those recycled woods came from before you buy.
7. If you are just starting don’t go out and by several dozen bobbins just because those are the ones your instructor used. Buy one of several different sizes until you find the one that works for your hand. Companies such as FFP will allow you to trade them back for the ones that do work for you. Once you’ve found the one that feels good buy them by bulk. Usually there is a substantial discount. Or go in with a friend.
That’s all for now!
kathe

Waiting, Waiting and More Waiting

ASIDE-I have decided that creating posts is a grand adventure into the unknown and ever changeable.  My formatting never  stays where it belongs, never does what it should. Buttons take over-such as the underlining button or the colour button. There is no stabilizing the format so every time one opens my blog page the layout is ever different ever shifting-much like life. So instead of fighting the whole thing and becoming frustrated. I have decided to accept what ever it gives me as an ever-changing piece of random performance art that 
changes with each performance. 

"And He.." Last for the Shannock in my studio-finished 9inches by 24 inches
maybe 11 inches if I decide to not turn under bottom Selve

Fog and layers of ridges
Great study for
 transparencies

transparencies

Today and most of the week everything is or has been about waiting. Waiting to get stitches or at least the bandage off. Waiting for the loom to go.Waiting to buy tables and furniture for new looms and equipment. Waiting to warp two looms-again the bandages Waiting to leave for Arizona where I am teaching in Tuscon and Sun City. Waiting for packages. Waiting to finish handouts-still can’t type and I am definitely not going to do them on my i-phone. The screens way too small and the spelling variations can't be seen-at least by me.  Waiting to start my new piece, because those other things I am waiting on might show up and interrupt.   Waiting to take pictures of fog. I can’t reach the push buttons on the camera button on either camera.  The slipping in and out of images into fog this morning was/is incredible. A real reason perhaps excuse for  working with transparencies not that I need one. Sometimes reasons and logic help me to commit and get around to doing what I really want to do put have performance anxiety about whatever...  I really want to design  a landscape with ridges and trees and fog as a colour and technique study.  I wish I could remember who wove a piece of trees in fog with silk and wool, fog and the softness and silence of fog. It was in a show I was in at least 10 years ago.  It was such an incredible piece. Someone said it was stolen-so very bad. Been there done that.

 My typing and mouse usage leaves way too much to chance.


(This is just great.  I have managed to hit another magic button that  wants to save all of my typos and corrections.  And I can't find it to turn it off. How embarrassing!  Where is the sanctity of second chances without shame that the corrections one is able to do on the computer generally promote.)

Fortunately Most of the waiting is finite, just frustrating. Each minute seems a thousand minutes;lined up and disappearing into the future.

Waiting, waiting,waiting, more waiting.

Frustration, definition via the Internet;     Part of Speech- Noun; synonyms: annoyance, bitter pill, blocking, bummer, circumvention, contravention, curbing, defeat, disgruntlement, dissatisfaction, downer, drag, failure, fizzle, foiling, grievance, hindrance, impediment, irritation, let down, non fulfillment, non success, obstruction, old one two, resentment, setback, unfullfilment, vexation.   I really think it should have included the word waiting.

Surprise!!

Well, that venting feels better most of the  synonyms don’t fit my situation anyhow.

I need to create a hierarchy of waiting.  Perhaps, I can organize what I am waiting for by the amount of time I need to wait for the waiting to end. waiting like  Dante’’s levels of hell.  I really need to reread the Inferno again just for the descriptions of hell. I am sure there must be something about hell, procrastination and waiting. Or, perhaps, surely,  levels of limbo. 

 Limbo (Latin limbus, edge or boundary, referring to the "edge" of Hell) is a speculative idea.

Obviously written by  someone who doesn’t mind waiting. 

Enough Diva-ness  and word play for today.


WOW! What a difference a day can make!

       Yesterdays attitude seems almost funny today. Well-today it’s humorous-Yesterday not so. Waiting is over and now I feel a since of urgency. I can use my hand again. Finally discovered the complexity of my hand surgery. I have 4 incisions that are healing just fine- 4 in the palm and one at the base of my thumb.  Stings something fierce with the stitches out.

What Spider Women
could have told Ikotomi
and Icarus.

       Poor Dr. Yao-my hand surgeon- I don’t think he understand my obsession with tapestry weaving. He doesn't know whether to be amused or…? about my weaving and my schedule, or worried about my unsterotypical ideas and work.  At my age- and I don’t think that I am that old-I think he thinks a women at my age should be retiring and easing up. He always has this nonplussed look on his face when I discuss my tapestry weaving and how it affects my hands.  If I don’t weave my hands stiffen up. O well, if I were in my 30’s I might feel  the same way.exhibit
      Last week was even better
I won Best of Show at the Blue Ridge Hand weavers Exhibit. Every time I have entered-my second time- I have been amazed at the quality of the work in the show. The pictures they mount on their website are lovely and intriguing. To top it all off Tommye Scanlin had donated one of her Kudzu pieces to a fund raising raffle they were holding. I never win anything. I feel buying raffle tickets is  a donation-nothing more. I was so surprised when I won.

Tommye Scanlin.
size 20inches by 22inches. Image stolen from
Blue Ridge Hand weavers  exhibit web site. My thanks for its use

     Had a nice surprise today. My Handwoven Magazine  arrived and it actually has a  good deal of tapestry in it. It also contains a picture of So Many Chances and the colour is fairly accurate.  There is a very interesting article by Sara Swett on weaving lists. Sort of reminds me of the time I wove the scratch paper from my drafting table/ work table. See photo's somewhere below and out of place. They keep shifting.

Broken feather/ Broken promise

       I     with drew So Sought after from Small Expressions.  So all the prize winners moved up 1 level.  I am still a little angry at HGA, but not for the reason one would think. Prizes, getting into shows and awards have never meant that much to me. After the last 3 decades of entering shows I view it like a game of chance. I don’t stake how I feel about my work or myself on games of chance. They are more of a puzzlement to be figured out and be amused about the results.  I am angry because on January 4th I called the HGA office to ask  for clarification of the rules- the rule about a piece having never been published. I wanted to know if they meant published anywhere or just in HGA publications. On their advice and reassurance that it just meant HGA publications I entered the piece. I would not have entered that piece into the exhibit if I had been given accurate information. I am not so dumb to think someone wouldn’t have noticed let alone the ethics of entering a piece knowing it broke the rules-so not me. Cheating destroys the game aspect of entering shows.   The year before they took away my third prize because my framing was messed up in shipping.  I use the letter in my classes when we discuss mounting, shipping, and entering exhibits. Good workmanship is important to the whole experience of a tapestry. They hung the piece, but hung it upside down. I just can’t seem to win with HGA. I admit that the frame problem was mine, but still they should have hung it right side up.  I have been in Small Expressions 13 or 14 times since 1988- 20 or so years. O, well-asi es la vida de los esclavos-gr! Lol! It’s taken them until about yesterday to remove it from their web page! So now I get to answer 4 months of questions about what happened. Enuff!

 On to better more important  stuff.

  I did finish the piece on the Shannock.    I finished the sample, scrap,  portion of "And he..." I am just not sure how to define this piece at this particular point in time or if I'll ever attempt to show it or sale it-after all it is only a portion of the whole.    The piece itself is 9 inches by 24 inches. I still haven't decided how to finish it. Leave my name or turn it under. I love the over dyed indigo colour. Pat dyed the ton of the ugly yellow stuff I had purchased because it was cheap and i could afford it into a beautiful Indigo colour.Other then cheapness i have no idea what I thought I could do with all of that ugly yellow.   I, also,  need to decide how I am going to handle the two feet of selvedge on each side. The only thing I seemed to be able to do  last week was weave with my hand all wrapped up.   Now that I woven the sample no matter what the reason I wove the scrap, but  mostly because I couldn't  let go of the loom with an unfinished piece on it. (Interesting the spell-check brings up love when I click on wove. ) I can hardly wait to start the small format/ small scale version of the design.  It will be half the size this “and he…”  was intended to be.I have fallen in love with the colours.

Scroodle scrap paper from Maze Craze
1990

I love the colours in the  wing, but I did learn that it would have been much better to have woven the design the other direction. I wouldn’t have had to work so hard getting rid of the stair steps on the feathers.

 Learned not to use crosheen on the lace bits. It worms against the wool and even worse against the embroidery flosses.

Maze Craze late 1990

 I learned that I didn’t need bobbins. All I needed was to be able to hook the wefts with my fingers and pull. Valuable information  for those weaving with problem hands that i teach.  It does make one work harder to keep the weft loopies from forming in the half passes. There really is a very good reason for using bobbins as opposed to loose wefts hanging and butterflies. The bobbin helps control the tension of the weft threads as they are woven and come off the bobbin.  The bobbins also allow the weaver to control the twist and the closeness of the colour as it is laid in a pass. This then allows you to twist the weft bundle and change the density of the colour in mélanges and chenes.  I need to do some samples of this colour density thing  happening.

       Another lesson that I learned is that different rayon embroidery flosses weave differently. DMC rayon weaves thicker and has an almost nappy feel.  The ratio  is also different.  DMC needs  4  strands  instead of the 6 that Coates and Clark’s need at 20 epi.  At 10 epi it needs to be double that. Coats and Clark's rayon-especially in the black gets a flake or peel of something light grey when you weave at 20 epi. It’s a little like dandruff or dry skin. The same reason I don’t use quilting thread as warp, but buttonhole twist or  dual craft thread for warp at 20 epi.

Remembering spring as fall happens

      I really had fun with the gold in the scroll. I learned that filigree and loops need to be larger in scale  in order to allow the detail to be seen at 5-10 feet where the best optical blending occurs in the colour when weaving with wool at  10 epi.  On the other hand at 20 epi the scroll work can be much more delicate and should be much more delicate in scale, because people stand so close to the small work. They actually have a tendency to stand closer than necessary to get the optical blending.   One would think that if the optimum at 10 epi is 10 feet then it should be 5 feet for 20 epi. BUT, people don’t do that  with small format/small scale work, People stand a foot or two from the work.

 SO for my designs the colour blending needs to be finer with more bobbin blendings that are more closely related  to get the maximum effect of the optical blending.

 I ended up doing a lot of single wraps while working on the inner turns of the scroll. Next time I think I’ll make the scroll twice as big so I have two warp threads instead of one  warp thread. Live and learn. This gave me a lot of practice of sharing warp turns and shared warps. It’s fairly easy to hide the interlocks and weft turns if one remembers to watch the direction of the turn around loop  or the direction it goes around the  warp.  The turns and wraps need to extra dense so that they can pack down and help hide the sharing and the turns. The direction of the loops isn’t always consistent in which colour looks right in the sharing. It depends on if you are working with a hill or a valley thread. Turns and loop backs done on valley threads are easier to hide because the next turn or wrap drops down into the valley and covers the previous turning thread.  Doing almost anything in a valley is easier to cover because the next half pass is a hill thread drops down and covers.  In vertical soumack it works  in the same way. Drop the turning thread onto a valley warp and the next pass of weft will cover the turn-unless your working the weft with too tight or a warp tension too loose and that’s a whole other problem.

Chene's car seat

The other study that I am doing with the top of the selvedge is experimenting with soumack  and twined edges which I will then braid when I cut off the piece, which should be tomorrow. The loom is ready to go with good karma!!!

(This is just great.  I have managed to hit a magic button that  wants to save all of my typos and corrections. How embarrassing!  Where is the sanctity of second chances without shame that the corrections one is able to do on the computer generally promote.)  

Well as I began. It's all a great adventure...
cheers for now.